


The Choices We Made

by Tallulah



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Bittersweet, Gen, Talking, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 15:00:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17226188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallulah/pseuds/Tallulah
Summary: While they wait for the end of it all, Misa asks Mogi how it started.





	The Choices We Made

Misa takes the pack of cards and starts to shuffle them again, but listlessly, more like she’s just playing with them for something to do. She feels Mogi looking at her and smiles across at him: “Misa needs to think of another game. One where she’ll win!”

Mogi smiles back at her. “There’s always Snap. That’s never come naturally to me.”

Misa giggles: “None of the games where you have to shout would come naturally to Mochi. Oh, we should play Snap next. In a bit.” She shuffles the cards a little more. “Hey, Mochi… how come you stayed trying to catch Kira, anyway?”

He blinks, and she smiles a little more gently: “Just thinking. I mean… you can’t have joined the NPA to play cards with an idol singer because you both got kidnapped. Bet you didn’t think when you started the Kira case that’s what you’d be doing, either.”

Mogi has to remind himself, sometimes, that Misa was almost certainly the Second Kira, someone around whom you have to watch what you say. She talks and she sometimes listens and there are few things that make her angry if you don’t mention Raito. That’s… pleasant to be around, when you’re not naturally talkative. 

He says, “It seemed like the right thing to do.” Keeping his voice even, non-committal, like the topic isn’t even interesting to him. She sticks out her tongue at him. “Matsu stayed because Raito’s dad was leading it. Monchichi stayed because he’s too stubborn not to. And then so did Ide. I mean I guess they all thought it was right too but… didn’t you have any other reason like that? A real reason?”

He frowns, and she says, “Yeah, okay, _doing what’s right_ , I guess that is a real reason, but most people don’t actually do stuff because of that. They’ve got other stuff. Feelings stuff. Like me, I used to support Kira because I owed him, you know? And then I met Raito and he doesn’t support Kira, and I love Raito, so I don’t either.”

She actually waits for an answer, and so he says, “Well… doing what’s right, that… that is what it was. I didn’t have a family depending on me. I’d joined the NPA to… to do a good job, even if it was dangerous. That hadn’t changed.”

Misa stares at him, stopping shuffling the cards for a few seconds, and smiles like she doesn’t hear stuff like that very often. Mogi wonders if she thinks he’s giving the answer that will make him look good.

“It wasn’t as much of a… a choice as you’re making it sound,” he says. “Chief Yagami asked us to remain in the room if we were committed, and leave if we weren’t. It… didn’t occur to me to leave. I didn’t think so many others would.”

“And now you’re here,” Misa says, softly. She stretches out her feet, like she’s going to touch his with them, but she doesn’t. Carries on shuffling the cards. “Hey, there was another one, wasn’t there? Another one of you. The guy who got killed by the Second Kira. How come he stayed? Do you know?”

Mogi manages to keep his expression steady, to say, as calmly as he can, “Ukita. No, we didn’t really talk about it.” Misa shrugs and scrambles up to look for the cards for Snap. Mogi thinks that if he were really interested in doing the right thing, he wouldn’t enjoy her company like he does. What she’d done – even if she can’t remember it – would mean something. But he doesn’t say anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 12daysChristmas on LiveJournal, prompt "Five uncertain choices".


End file.
